Cortical representations for phonological quantity

Different languages use temporal speech cues in different linguistic functions. In Finnish, speech-sound duration is used as the primary cue for the phonological quantity distinction ― i.e., a distinction between short and long phonemes. For the second-language (L2) learners of Finnish, quantity is often difficult to master if speech-sound duration plays a less important role in the phonology of their native language (L1). The present studies aimed to investigate the cortical representations for phonological quantity in native speakers and L2 users of Finnish by using behavioral and electrophysiological methods. Since long-term memory representations for different speech units have been previously shown to participate in the elicitation of the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response, MMN was used to compare the neural representation for quantity between native speakers and L2 users of Finnish. The results of the studies suggested that native Finnish speakers' MMN response to quantity was determined by the activation of native-language phonetic prototypes rather than by phoneme boundaries. In addition, native speakers seemed to process phoneme quantity and quality independently from each other by separate brain representations. The cross-linguistic MMN studies revealed that, in native speakers of Finnish, the MMN response to duration or quantity-degree changes was enhanced in amplitude selectively in speech sounds, whereas this pattern was not observed in L2 users. Native speakers' MMN enhancement is suggested to be due to the pre-attentive activation of L1 prototypes for quantity. In L2 users, the activation of L2 prototypes or other L2 learning effects were not reflected in the MMN, with one exception. Even though L2 users failed to show native-like brain responses to duration changes in a vowel that was similar in L1 and L2, their duration MMN response was native-like for an L2 vowel with no counterpart in L1. Thus, the pre-attentive activation of L2 users' representations was determined by the degree of similarity of L2 sounds to L1 sounds. In addition, behavioral experiments suggested that the establishment of representations for L2 quantity may require several years of language exposure.Eri kielet käyttävät äänteiden kestovihjeitä erilaisissa kielellisissä tehtävissä. Suomessa äänteen kesto on kvantiteetin eli lyhyiden ja pitkien foneemien erottamisen tärkein vihje. Suomea toisena kielenä puhuvien on usein vaikea oppia kvantiteetti, jos äänteen kestolla on vähäisempi merkitys heidän äidinkielessään. Tämän väitöskirjan tutkimuksissa tarkasteltiin aivovastemittausten ja foneettisten testien avulla kvantiteettikategorioiden muistijälkiä äidinkieleltään suomenkielisten ja suomea toisena kielenä puhuvien aivokuorella. Koska äänteiden pitkäkestoisten muistijälkien on aiemmin todettu osallistuvan MMN-aivovasteen (engl. mismatch negativity) syntymiseen, sitä käytettiin selvittämään, miten äidinkieleltään suomenkielisten ja suomea toisena kielenä puhvien kvantiteettikategorioiden muistijäljet poikkeavat toisistaan. Tulosten mukaan äidinkieleltään suomenkielisten MMN-vasteen voimakkuus määräytyi äidinkielen foneettisten prototyyppien mukaan eikä foneemien rajojen mukaan. Lisäksi suomenkieliset näyttivät käsittelevän foneemin laadun ja kvantiteetin toisistaan riippumattomasti, eri kategorioiden kautta. Kieliryhmiä vertailevat MMN-tutkimukset puolestaan osoittivat, että äidinkieleltään suomenkielisillä MMN-vaste keston muutokselle oli nimenomaan puheäänteiden kohdalla voimakkaampi kuin toisen kielen oppijoilla. Tämä saattaa johtua foneettisten prototyyppien esitietoisesta aktivoitumisesta äidinkieleltään suomenkielisten aivokuorella. Toisen kielen oppijoilla toisen kielen prototyyppien aktivoituminen tai kielenoppiminen ylipäänsä eivät näkyneet MMN-vasteessa yhtä poikkeusta lukuun ottamatta. Vaikka suomea toisena kielenä puhuvien aivovasteiden voimakkuus äänteen keston muutokselle ei saavuttanut äidinkielisten tasoa vokaalissa, joka oli samankaltainen heidän äidinkielessään ja toisessa kielessään, he saavuttivat suomenkielisten tason vokaalissa, jolla ei ollut vastinetta heidän äidinkielessään. Näin ollen äidinkielen ja toisen kielen äänteiden samankaltaisuus näyttäisi vaikuttavan suomea toisena kielenä puhuvien muistijälkien esitietoiseen aktivoitumiseen. Tutkimuksen foneettisten kokeiden mukaan kategorioiden syntyminen toisen kielen kvantiteetille saattaa vaatia useiden vuosien altistusta toiselle kielelle

The Role of Subjective Quality Judgements in User Preferences for Mobile Learning Apps

This study investigated whether subjective quality judgements on sound and picture quality across three devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPad mini) affected user preferences for learning applications. We tested 20 native Finnish-speaking users trialing generic audio clips, video clips, and two kinds of learning apps that were heavily reliant on sound. It was found that there was a main effect of the device on perceived sound quality, replicating earlier findings. However, these judgements did not impact on the users' preferences for different devices nor on their preferences for different applications. The results are interpreted as indicating that perceived quality and affordances are less important for users in these contexts than other considerations (e.g., convenience, mobility, etc.).Peer reviewe

Intentional Training With Speech Production Supports Children’s Learning the Meanings of Foreign Words : A Comparison of Four Learning Tasks

To determine the best techniques to teach children foreign words, we compared the effectiveness of four different learning tasks on their foreign-word learning (i.e., learning word forms and word meanings). The tasks included incidental learning, intentional learning with production, intentional learning without production, and crosssituational statistical learning. We also analyzed whether children’s age and cognitive skills correlate with the learning of word forms and word meanings. Forty-four 5–8-yearold children participated in the study. The results reveal that the children were able to learn the correct word forms from all four tasks and no differences emerged between the effectiveness of the tasks on the learning of word-forms. The children also learned the word meanings with all four tasks, yet the intentional task with production was more effectivethantheincidentaltask. Thissuggeststhattheabilityofchildrentolearnforeign words benefited from them knowing that they were supposed to learn new words and producingthemaloudwhiletraining.Theageofthechildrencorrelatedwiththeirlearning results for word forms and meanings on the intentional task without production. The older children learned more effectively than the younger children in this task. Children’s phonological processing skills were correlated with learning the word meanings from the incidental task, suggesting that children with better phonological skills were able to benefit from incidental learning more than children with poorer phonological skills. Altogether, the results suggest that children’s foreign-language learning benefits from intentional training with speech production regardless of their age or cognitive skills.Peer reviewe

Prosodically controlled derivations in the mental lexicon

Swedish morphemes are classified as prosodically specified or prosodically unspecified, depending on lexical or phonological stress, respectively. Here, we investigate the allomorphy of the suffix -(i)sk, which indicates the distinction between lexical and phonological stress; if attached to a lexically stressed morpheme, it takes a non-syllabic form (-sk), whereas if attached to a phonologically stressed morpheme, an epenthetic vowel is inserted (-isk). Using mismatch negativity (MMN), we explored the neural processing of this allomorphy across lexically stressed and phonologically stressed morphemes. In an oddball paradigm, participants were occasionally presented with congruent and incongruent derivations, created by the suffix -(i)sk, within the repetitive presentation of their monomorphemic stems. The results indicated that the congruent derivation of the lexically stressed stem elicited a larger MMN than the incongruent sequences of the same stem and the derivational suffix, whereas after the phonologically stressed stem a non-significant tendency towards an opposite pattern was observed. We argue that the significant MMN response to the congruent derivation in the lexical stress condition is in line with lexical MMN, indicating a holistic processing of the sequence of lexically stressed stem and derivational suffix. The enhanced MMN response to the incongruent derivation in the phonological stress condition, on the other hand, is suggested to reflect combinatorial processing of the sequence of phonologically stressed stem and derivational suffix. These findings bring a new aspect to the dual-system approach to neural processing of morphologically complex words, namely the specification of word stress.Peer reviewe

Phonetic and orthographic cues are weighted in speech sound perception by second language speakers: evidence from Greek speakers of English.

Second language (L2) learning can involve processing of speech-sound contrasts that have multiple phonetic cues (e.g. Iverson et al., 2003). This can be particularly difficult for foreign-language learners especially if the cues are weighted differently in the foreign and native languages (e.g., Giannakopoulou et al., 2011, 2013). The orthographic representation of words is suggested to also interfere with speech sound perception in way of presenting additional cues for the second language learner. Greek child and adult speakers of English were studied to determine on what basis they are making perceptual identification between English vowels with the use of pictures as visual stimuli. Performance was impaired for Greek speakers across all tasks but worst for Greek speakers for the picture stimuli task. Findings suggest a 'link' between orthography and perceptual identification serving as an additional cue for L2 speakers

Oppimisintervention tai kuntoutuksen vaikutuksen tutkiminen kokeellisesti

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Better Phonological Short-Term Memory Is Linked to Improved Cortical Memory Representations for Word Forms and Better Word Learning

Language learning relies on both short-term and long-term memory. Phonological short-term memory (pSTM) is thought to play an important role in the learning of novel word forms. However, language learners may differ in their ability to maintain word representations in pSTM during interfering auditory input. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate how pSTM capacity in better and poorer pSTM groups is linked to language learning and the maintenance of pseudowords in pSTM. In particular, MEG was recorded while participants maintained pseudowords in pSTM by covert speech rehearsal, and while these brain representations were probed by presenting auditory pseudowords with first or third syllables matching or mismatching the rehearsed item. A control condition included identical stimuli but no rehearsal. Differences in response strength between matching and mismatching syllables were interpreted as the phonological mapping negativity (PMN). While PMN for the first syllable was found in both groups, it was observed for the third syllable only in the group with better pSTM. This suggests that individuals with better pSTM maintained representations of trisyllabic pseudowords more accurately during interference than individuals with poorer pSTM. Importantly, the group with better pSTM learned words faster in a paired-associate word learning task, linking the PMN findings to language learning.Peer reviewe

Predictive coding accelerates word recognition and learning in the early stages of language development

The ability to predict future events in the environment and learn from them is a fundamental component of adaptive behavior across species. Here we propose that inferring predictions facilitates speech processing and word learning in the early stages of language development. Twelve- and 24-month olds' electrophysiological brain responses to heard syllables are faster and more robust when the preceding word context predicts the ending of a familiar word. For unfamiliar, novel word forms, however, word-expectancy violation generates a prediction error response, the strength of which significantly correlates with children's vocabulary scores at 12 months. These results suggest that predictive coding may accelerate word recognition and support early learning of novel words, including not only the learning of heard word forms but also their mapping to meanings. Prediction error may mediate learning via attention, since infants' attention allocation to the entire learning situation in natural environments could account for the link between prediction error and the understanding of word meanings. On the whole, the present results on predictive coding support the view that principles of brain function reported across domains in humans and non-human animals apply to language and its development in the infant brain. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: http://hy.fi/unitube/video/e1cbb495-41d8-462e-8660-0864a1abd02c. [Correction added on 27 January 2017, after first online publication: The video abstract link was added.]Peer reviewe

Phonological Variations Are Compensated at the Lexical Level : Evidence From Auditory Neural Activity

Dealing with phonological variations is important for speech processing. This article addresses whether phonological variations introduced by assimilatory processes are compensated for at the pre-lexical or lexical level, and whether the nature of variation and the phonological context influence this process. To this end, Swedish nasal regressive place assimilation was investigated using the mismatch negativity (MMN) component. In nasal regressive assimilation, the coronal nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following segment, most clearly with a velar or labial place of articulation, as in utan mej "without me" > [MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLONtam mejMODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON]. In a passive auditory oddball paradigm, 15 Swedish speakers were presented with Swedish phrases with attested and unattested phonological variations and contexts for nasal assimilation. Attested variations - a coronal-to-labial change as in utan "without" > [MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLONtam] - were contrasted with unattested variations - a labial-to-coronal change as in utom "except" > *[MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLONtLATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN On] - in appropriate and inappropriate contexts created by mej "me" [mejMODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON] and dej "you" [dejMODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON]. Given that the MMN amplitude depends on the degree of variation between two stimuli, the MMN responses were expected to indicate to what extent the distance between variants was tolerated by the perceptual system. Since the MMN response reflects not only low-level acoustic processing but also higher-level linguistic processes, the results were predicted to indicate whether listeners process assimilation at the pre-lexical and lexical levels. The results indicated no significant interactions across variations, suggesting that variations in phonological forms do not incur any cost in lexical retrieval; hence such variation is compensated for at the lexical level. However, since the MMN response reached significance only for a labial-to-coronal change in a labial context and for a coronal-to-labial change in a coronal context, the compensation might have been influenced by the nature of variation and the phonological context. It is therefore concluded that while assimilation is compensated for at the lexical level, there is also some influence from pre-lexical processing. The present results reveal not only signal-based perception of phonological units, but also higher-level lexical processing, and are thus able to reconcile the bottom-up and top-down models of speech processing.Peer reviewe